


Don't Ask, Don't Tell

by myheartsegg



Series: Zolu Week 2k17 [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Fantasy AU, M/M, ZoLu Week, youkai AU, zolu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2018-11-30 17:09:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11467965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myheartsegg/pseuds/myheartsegg
Summary: Zoro's always been a little different. Between seeing things that shouldn't be there and beating those things' asses into next week, Zoro's always been on the strange side. But when he starts seeing a boy on the train, Zoro finds the time to be normal. At least, as normal one can get in a friendship where secrets are abound and the number one rule is "don't ask, don't tell".For the first day of #zoluweek – prompt: Fantasy AU! So I made it into a Youkai AU with a Natsume Yuujinchou twist!





	1. Chapter 1

**Don't Ask, Don't Tell**

 

* * *

 

There's… a kid staring at him. Or rather, there's a teen that looks around Zoro's age that is standing uncomfortably close to him on the train on the way to his school.

Zoro's never seen this kid before. And if he had, he's pretty sure that he would have remembered him. He's got unnaturally large eyes, unnaturally dark hair, and he's got a ridiculously over-sized straw hat on his head that the kid keeps looking up at Zoro from under the shade of.

That, plus Zoro feels confident he would have remembered a guy with a really obvious scar right under his left eye. Scars like that didn't come without a story of bloodshed behind them.

Zoro's eyes rake over the boy's clothing. He's wearing a school uniform; it's a blazer-less dress shirt with a light blue tie and navy blue dress pants - but the way the boy wears them, they're rolled from the ankles up to mid-calf.

The uniform ensemble itself seems pretty standard, but it's not one that Zoro recognizes from around the prefecture; which in itself is odd, seeing as Zoro has already beaten up all the thug bosses around said prefecture. Perhaps the kid was from out of town?

Zoro's train of thought is thrown off its rails when the automated voice of the conductor issues from the speakers and announces his stop. Without a glance back, he exits the train and continues on his (wrong) way to school.

Not like he'll be seeing the kid again.

 

* * *

 

He's wrong about that.

Zoro ends up seeing the kid again. Every. Single. Day.

It's getting a little creepy what with the way the kid has this unblinking stare somewhere over the top of Zoro's head. He wants to confront the guy about it, maybe speak up and ask why the hell he was staring at him. But then again, the kid (Zoro doesn't even know his name - hasn't even bothered to try and find out for the past few weeks) hadn't really done anything wrong. Hadn't once touched him, or glared at him, or talked to him. The only thing he _had_ done was send this oddly fascinated look in Zoro's direction.

It's weird. And unsettling. It makes Zoro jumpy. Makes him stare too hard at someone or second guess his judgement when he bumps into new people nowadays.

Zoro makes up his mind then and there. He's going to have to stop this. For the sake of his mentality and his rapidly deteriorating trust in the world. (Nevermind trust in himself - he'd had one too many mishaps with that to fully trust his instincts anymore, but if Zoro wanted to stop the nagging paranoia that was building up in his system, he'd have to confront the kid once and for all.)

With a deep-seated breath, Zoro turns to look at the boy with the ridiculous straw hat. Only for the said boy to jump as if caught with his hand in a cookie-jar and to scurry off at the next station.

Mouth left hanging open in his attempt to get a word out, Zoro stands frozen in place until his stop comes.

Well, if nothing else, there was always tomorrow.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Zoro finds that once he steps onto the train, the boy that usually gets on at the next stop to stand uncomfortably close to him as he basically hugs a pole like a stripper, is not in his regular spot stewing in Zoro's armpit.

He's over at the other end of the train carriage, pressed up against the wall and regarding Zoro with a skeptical gaze. It's strange - this distance between them. Especially after Zoro's spent close to a month ignoring the other's presence practically pressed up against him.

Before he makes the conscious decision, Zoro finds his feet moving until he's standing in front of the boy in a semi-private area of the train where eyes are less likely to wander. He boxes the guy in with his shoulders, pressing close to the wall so that he can't make a last-minute escape like last time.

The kid with the scar under his left eye blinks up at Zoro without a hint of the trepidation seen the day before - in fact, it almost looks like they're twinkling in anticipation. Suddenly, Zoro can't get the words out. His tongue is sticking to the roof of his mouth and his nerves are tingling and each hair stands on end- but he can't make a sound.

Instead, the kid fucking _smiles_ and it catches Zoro completely off-guard.

"I like your hair!" he chirps abruptly, rocking up onto the balls of his toes to shove both hands into Zoro's vibrant green mop. He hasn't gotten it cut in a while, so it's a bit long. Long enough for the mystery kid to card his fingers through them.

Zoro rears back like a spooked horse. "What the hell?" he hisses, shoulders climbing up to his ears in a protective hunch.

"Is it natural?" the kid asks, eyes sparkling something hopeful.

Zoro clears his throat discretely, a little put out by the way the kid completely ignored his blatant indignation at being touched. "Y-yeah. It is."

"Cooool~!" The boy sing-songs. "Hey, you're pretty amazing! What's your name?"

Zoro's not really sure having green hair is all that amazing, but- "Before you ask for someone else's name, isn't it polite to give yours first?" he shoots back without missing a beat.

The boy hums, tilting his head in consideration. "Yeah, you're right. I'm Luffy! Monkey D. Luffy!" Luffy's grin is wide and bright, but his voice has a quiet, hushed tone. Zoro's head spins.

"Zoro," he hears himself answer accordingly. "Roronoa Zoro."

"Zo-rooo.." the kid - _Luffy_ \- drawls, testing out the syllables on his tongue. The way it sounds in the kid's voice shouldn't be so pleasing to Zoro, but it is. And it's _weird_.

"You-" Zoro blurts without thinking. "Suddenly on first-name basis? Isn't that a little bold?"

Luffy blinks at him. "Would you rather I have called you by your last name?" he asks, owlish eyes seeing straight through Zoro.

"No…" the swordsman sighs, grimacing. "Zoro is fine."

"Weirdo," the boy hums under his breath, lips quirking into a teasing smile that has no malicious intent behind it whatsoever. Still, Zoro prickles at the word.

"I don't want to hear that from someone who stared at me for like, a month straight without saying anything!" he growls. He lowers his voice to a conspiratorial murmur when people start giving him funny looks from out of the corners of their eyes. "It was all because of my hair anyway, right?"

Luffy places a hand on his straw hat as if it's about to be blown away in the soggy air of the train and his grin grows wider (Zoro didn't think it was possible, but here it is, staring him in the face). "Yup! It was interesting! A mystery colour!"

Well, that explained why the kid had stared at the space above Zoro's head every single goddamn day. "It's not that strange," he grumbles more to himself than to anyone else. A flashback montage of a blonde idiot calling him a marimo comes to mind, and he has to push away the thought before he grinds all his teeth to dust. Instead, he distracts himself with a burning question he's held onto since day one: "Hey, you, which school do you go to? I haven't seen that uniform around this prefecture."

Luffy laughs. "I don't go to school in this prefecture. Mine's technically over in the next town."

" _Hah?_ The next town?" Zoro says, disgruntled. "Isn't that a little far?" A _little_ far is an understatement. It would take about half the day to get to the next town by train. And this kid has to make a round trip everyday. What the _hell_.

Luffy shrugs his shoulders like the details of it couldn't have mattered to him less.

"That doesn't make sense," Zoro grouses, brows furrowing down the middle of his face. "It would take you half the day to get there and then half the day to get back. How the hell would you have time to actually do anything, let alone go to school?"

A mischievous smile lights the kid's face. "I don't. Go to school that is. I only go to see my friends. They all live in separate towns, so I go to see them when I can. Otherwise, I just get off at the stop after yours to see my brothers."

Well, at least that made marginally more sense than travelling by train to the next town just for school. Zoro feels tempted to ask about the kid's schooling and what he's doing about that, but he holds his tongue. He doesn't know the kid's situation, and it isn't his place to ask. So he'll let the issue lie.

"Hmmm. I see. So where do you live?" Zoro asks as a diversion, not really expecting a straightforward answer.

"On the south side of East Blue Mountain," Luffy replies easily.

An eyebrow raises itself on Zoro's forehead. "I live on the North side of that mountain."

That explains why the kid always got on one stop after Zoro did. East Blue Mountain wasn't really a mountain, but more like an over-glorified hill that had gained its status as a mountain due to its long-standing history and ancient forest.

"Cool! So I guess I can just meet you in the mountains then instead of on this crowded train!"

Zoro splutters. "Who ever said I would meet you anywhere? We just met!"

"Hm? But isn't Zoro my friend now?"

Zoro has gone through the sensation of vertigo once before when he had trained so hard he nearly collapsed. He feels like that now, but at the moment he's just _talking_ to Luffy. "That's not how it works!" he yells, "I'm not meeting you anywhere, friends or not!"

He's not sure how long he'll last if he has to interact with the kid for longer than an half-an-hour train ride.

 

* * *

 

He ends up meeting Luffy in the forest between their homes later that day.

Zoro can't really say how it came about, but one moment Luffy had yelled at him to meet him at the tree in the very middle of the forest as he hopped off the train, and the next, Zoro's feet were leading him there after school.

There really is no harm in meeting the boy, Zoro surmises. The worst that could happen is that Luffy isn't there, and Zoro would have to make the trek back home. Second-worst is that Zoro doesn't go, and Luffy is stuck waiting for him. Neither's a good option in Zoro's books. It simply wasn't moral.

So, into the forest he goes.

It comes as a sort of surprise when he finds that the tree in the very middle of the forest is a sakura tree. When he walks up under it, he finds Luffy sitting in between its boughs, napping soundly. His left arm and leg are dangling over the side of the trunk he's sleeping on, barely visible under the heavy cover of blooming sakura blossoms. That ridiculously over-sized straw hat of his is resting in his lap, nearly drowned in pink petals that spill haphazardously over the brim.

In the fading light of day, surrounded by off-white petals that light on his dark hair, Luffy almost doesn't look human.

He looks a world away, part of that other world, full of its mysteries and possibilities that shouldn't exist.

He looks ethereal.

But then he blinks his eyes open at the sound of Zoro approaching, and something grounds him - pulls that incorporeal glow back into himself until he has the temporal body of someone from Zoro's world. A human, a mortal, a being that wallows in dirt and sweat and blood.

Zoro finds that to his eyes, Luffy looks good in both.

 

* * *

 

That month, they talk a lot. Or rather, _Luffy_ talks a lot.

He talks about his friends that live in the towns over that he sometimes goes to visit when he has nothing to do, how these guys named Chopper and Robin and Brook and his brother Ace live in or near forests like this one.

How crocodile meat is one of his favourite meats because it's so tasty (how Luffy came across crocodile meat in Japan's mountains has left Zoro bamboozled for _at least_ three days before he gave up thinking about it).

He talks about how he often trains with the monkeys that live further up north in another mountain called Ruskaina that Zoro has never been to (the fact that Luffy trains in combat has led to some pretty epic sparring sessions that honestly give Zoro a run for his money).

He shows Zoro all the best hidey-holes to sneak into when playing hide-and-seek (in which Zoro learns that Luffy _really_ knows his way around East Blue mountain).

And in the times when Luffy runs out of things to say, they talk with their bodies instead of their words. A flicker of eyes to the side. A slow blink. Lips that curl back into a knowing smile. Fingers that twitch around an ankle. Shoulders that bump when they walk side-by-side.

Each is a conversation on its own.

And when those peter out, they just sit there in the swaying grass, enjoying each other's presence.

That, in itself is rare, because Luffy is always getting into something, so there's never really a moment of rest in his company - but sometimes it happens. And those are the moments that Zoro treasures the most.

On Zoro's part, he doesn't talk. He doesn't fill the silence between them with idle chatter like Luffy does. Doesn't tell Luffy about his friends Nami and Usopp and Vivi and Franky or (begrudgingly) Sanji. He doesn't talk about his past or his future. Doesn't need to mention that he is a swordsman (not that the three katana slung across his back don't give it away), or that he has lost all sight in his left eye.

He answers when talked to, and manages to hold a conversation; but Zoro always keeps his cards close to his chest.

He does not tell Luffy about the promise he made when he received Wado Ichimonji. He does not tell him about his dream of being the number one swordsman in the world, or the scar across his torso that he got chasing it. And he certainly does _not_ mention to Luffy that he can see youkai. Ever.

Because being with Luffy doesn't require him to be transparent like that. Luffy doesn't ask, and Zoro doesn't tell. He meets Zoro at face value, and takes what he can get. Zoro respects that.

That's how their tentative friendship works - Zoro likes it that way, and he intends to keep it that way.

That's why _he_ doesn't ask questions, and Luffy doesn't tell.

 

* * *

 

It's a typical day. He meets Luffy at the sakura tree in the very middle of East Blue forest and then they head off for something like fishing or sparring or napping in the shade of some trees.

It's a typical day. Until, of course, it's not.

They're picking their way through the undergrowth in search of a boar to catch and roast when a youkai comes barrelling through the trees, screaming its vengeance on the Roronoa name.

Without even thinking, Zoro has already unsheathed Wado Ichimonji and has swung its sharpened blade down in one swipe. The youkai goes wheeling backwards, swearing and cursing up a storm. It bumps into a conifer, little pine needles sprinkling down onto its unkempt hair, peppering the snowy silver with a smattering of deep green.

Zoro notes with some dissatisfaction that he didn't cut deep enough; the youkai is still writhing from the pain of the gash down the middle of its ginormous head instead of extinguished into ashes on the forest floor.

It's then that something occurs to Zoro. Something unsettling. He hasn't seen a youkai like this in such a long time. And it's especially odd that he hasn't seen one from this forest - this forest that he's grown up in all his life - been _tormented_ in for all his life. At least, not since the beginning of the month. Not since Luffy.

The name catches in Zoro's brain and plays on repeat. _Luffy_.

Was he-? Did he have anything to do with this? Was it a coincidence? Could he see them?

Like being doused in cold water, Zoro catches the youkai out of the corner of his good eye. It's running straight at Luffy.

" _Fuck,_ " he hisses, placing Wado Ichimonji into his mouth and drawing the other two katana from their scabbards before breaking into a flat sprint.

The youkai is _fast_. It's already half way to Luffy, stumbling and making a racket, and the little fucker hasn't even turned around.

_Because he can't see them._

_Because he's_ _ **human**_ , Zoro thinks frantically. _  
_

Heart pulsing harsh against his chest, Zoro races against the youkai to get to him first.

But he's too late.

He watches in slow-motion as his friend is knocked over flat on his ass, a giant youkai hovering over him with its mouth hanging open. Luffy is rubbing at the bump on his head, seemingly oblivious to the danger about to eat him.

Zoro grits his teeth. Strains a little further. A little faster. He can make it. He can-

Zoro sees red and a scream echoes in his ears. For a heart-stopping moment, Zoro feels his blood turn to ice. Feels all his organs drop from under him. Forgets how to breathe- how to _live_.

But it's not Luffy's scream that he hears. It's the youkai's.

Everything rushes back into motion. Luffy is standing on his feet, fist raised as he punches the youkai again over the ear in a left hook following his uppercut. His expression is dark, lips pressed together in a deep line and brows creased low over thunderous eyes. Luffy's gaze leaves the youkai in front of him for all of a millisecond to spare a glance at Zoro. And then suddenly everything is too bright. Grimacing against the blinding blue that radiates out from Luffy's body, Zoro squints through the purifying light and he sees it.

On Luffy's forehead, a symbol appears - twining and ancient and definitely _not_ human.

The youkai disappears in a wisp of black smoke and then it's just Luffy and Zoro, standing in the ringing silence of the forest as the youkai's dying howls make the surrounding trees groan and shudder at the fading sound.

Zoro doesn't say ' _I thought you were human'_. Doesn't ask Luffy ' _Why didn't you tell me?_ '. Doesn't mutter under his breath, ' _You should have said something._ '

Because that was their relationship - that was how they worked. Zoro didn't ask, Luffy didn't tell.

But he supposed it didn't matter anymore.

In retrospect, their friendship (if he could call it that - he _wanted_ to call it that) didn't require Zoro to be transparent like that because all this time, Luffy could see right through him anyway; right through to his core. He met Zoro at face value, and took what he could get - what Zoro was willing to give to him. And that was everything.

Zoro lets out a short huff of disbelief.

In the end, nothing had really changed, had it?

"So you're an ayakashi," Zoro says, sheathing his swords. He doesn't ask.

"Nah, not really," Luffy replies, bending over to pick up his straw hat and dusting off the top with a few firm pats. He places it back on his head with reverent care, but doesn't tell.

That was just how they worked.

"I see," Zoro eventually hums, already following after Luffy as he begins picking his way through the crushed undergrowth.

They continue on with their day without another word. Today was one of those days, Zoro guessed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He didn’t ask, so Luffy assumed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since Luffy is a youkai, his narrative style is very different from the previous chapter’s. Time takes place at very different rates for him; at times, scenes may run together, and in others, they may follow Zoro’s narrative timeline. Conversations tend to be truncated or attention given to different details.
> 
> All in all, I've tried to encapture the way the world looks from the eyes of a youkai.

There’s a guy on the train come spring. Luffy is pretty sure the month is April, but when one lives as long as he does, time doesn’t mean much. The passing of seasons is about the only way Luffy marks time, and even then it is only for the snow or rain or colour or sunshine that it brings that excites him enough to anticipate the turning of the clock.

 But this spring, time brings something new with it.

 He looks young. As young as Luffy’s current form. And his hair is green. Which is really cool. In fact, Luffy can’t stop looking at it. It’s a vibrant green that seems almost natural, like the grass that’s just now starting to spring out from the thawed earth. It makes him want to stare. To run his hands through it. To tug on those short locks to see if they were really strands of hair instead of grass. Maybe they would taste like grass too.

What a mysterious thing.

 Except, it’s not a _thing_ , per se, it’s a human. A mystery human. And from the vacant look in his eyes out the train window behind Luffy, he can’t see him. Just like every other human.

 Ace had always told Luffy to mind his manners and that staring and touching people without permission was rude, but since the guy couldn’t see him in the first place, it wouldn’t hurt if he looked a little, right?

 Right.

 Luffy stares at the human on the train day after day, never-endingly fascinated by his bright green hair. Sometimes, in moments like these, he wished humans were able to see him again, talk to him again, touch him again. Just like they were able to back in the day.

 It’s almost as if the passing thought summons the guy’s eyes to him.

 It’s then that Luffy notices that the human is looking at him. Not looking as he had before, with glancing eyes that rove over his face passively, as if wasn’t there, but actually _looking at Luffy_.

 The human takes in a breath, scowl fixed on his face and mouth opening in preparation of saying something. Luffy flees. He wasn’t about to get scolded for staring at someone. Least of all by Ace, if he ever found out that Luffy’d been staring at a human that could _see_ all this time.

 Luffy wonders if humans would feel shame at being caught doing something like that, but he wouldn’t know. He’s not one of them. Instead, he feels curiosity and excitement bubble in his gut. A human could _see_ . After the longest time, _finally,_ a human could see Luffy again.

 He couldn’t wait to make friends with this new guy.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Luffy gets onto the train early. He’d been visiting Robin the previous night, and was taking the train that ran his usual route to Sabo’s school in the morning. (Where Ace was no doubt following and guarding his human - their brother. Luffy still giggles at the thought.)

 The morning rush of humans in and out of the train pushes Luffy to the end of the carriage, pressed up against a wall where humans were less likely to bump into him. Not that he would have minded all that much, but sometimes he didn’t like the clinging emotions that would linger on his skin after contact with annoyed humans, cloying and buzzing in his ears like some giant cicada that got stuck in there.

 When the train finally reaches the stop at the North side of East Blue Mountain, Luffy sees the interesting human step onto the train. His vibrant green hair doesn’t make it any harder to spot him, but the pack of humans between him and the guy does. So Luffy cranes his neck to see the guy search the cabin, eyes roving over every person until they land on Luffy, tucked into the little corner of the train and leaning against the wall.

 Holding his breath, Luffy desperately hopes that the day before wasn’t a coincidence. That the human that finally _looked_ at Luffy had actually _seen_ him.

 The guy’s feet move in Luffy’s direction, eyes dead set on his face, and Luffy can’t help the anticipation in his expression when the human finally closes the gap between them - boxing him in with his shoulders. Standing so close to each other, Luffy can feel the spiritual power radiating from the human; it’s strong. Strong, for a human, despite the way it rises off the guy and dissipates in the atmosphere like an air freshener’s scent. Which made sense - before this, Luffy had felt the presence throughout the whole cabin, spread out and thinned; enough that the source was hard to pinpoint.

 A flip goes off in Luffy stomach, and he faintly pushes back with his own power, pressing forward and enveloping the human with his youki until the leak of spiritual power is contained in a little bubble around the two of them. The human stills, body going rigid and jaw locking before he gets the chance to open it. Luffy’s interest piques a little further; the fact that the guy could pick up on such a subtle action… This human was really interesting!

 Luffy breaks into a grin that he doesn’t bother suppressing.

 “I like your hair,” he says to the human, finally getting to reach up and thread both hands through those green strands. The human jerks back into motion, hissing something that Luffy doesn’t pay attention to in favour of giving his hair a gentle tug, mindful that humans are fragile things, and notes that his hair really was hair, and not a wig.

 “Is it natural?” Luffy asks, peering into the human’s eyes. He’s a little disappointed that they’re not green like his hair, but the excitement comes back to him when Luffy learns that his hair, was indeed, green by birth.

 It’s cool, and Luffy makes sure to mention as such. “What’s your name?” he asks eventually, eager to have a name to put to the face. Names were important; especially to youkai.

 “Before you ask for someone else’s name, isn’t it polite to give yours first?” the human grunts gruffly.

 Luffy takes a second to try and remember Sabo’s lessons on politeness… or was it manners? Maybe it was atticus? No, no, wasn’t that _etiquette_ …? Either way, it doesn’t ring any bells, but he doesn’t bother refuting the human’s logic. He was probably right about the manner stuff anyways.

 “I’m Luffy! Monkey D. Luffy,” he says, voice low so that only his human can hear. Names were powerful things, and although most youkai called him ‘Strawhat,’ he wanted this human to know his spoken name.

 “Zoro,” the human with green hair says, matching Luffy’s tone. “Roronoa Zoro.”

 Luffy tastes the name on his tongue, judging the power of it and the soul of this human. It feels good in his mouth, an instinct that Luffy has come to trust means that a person had a good soul and a better heart.

 “You-” Zoro chokes out, head lowering and eyes squinting. “Suddenly on first-name basis? Isn't that a little bold?"

 Luffy blinks at him. "Would you rather I have called you by your last name?" he asks. He was pretty sure humans liked their first names though. They were unique to the person and not their family, right? Sabo liked his first name better than his last name, after all…

 Maybe Zoro was secretive about his name in the same way that youkai were? It wouldn’t be surprising, what with his power.

 “No,” Zoro eventually sighs, his mouth pulling downward. His entire face sags like he’s tired. “Zoro is fine.”

 Luffy scrunches his brows together, but doesn't drop his smile. This human was weird. If he wanted Luffy to call him by his first name, why did he bother trying to change Luffy's mind? “Weirdo,” he comments instead.

 Luffy watches in fascination as Zoro’s hackles raise and he goes off on a tangent about Luffy’s staring. Humans were so much like youkai sometimes. Their emotions were so transparent, so present in their bodies and the way they moved. It never ceased to amaze him how alike they were.

 Luffy zones back in to the conversation when Zoro’s voice lowers into a whisper. “It was all because of my hair anyway, right?”

 Hiding his grin behind his straw hat at being reminded on how they were brought together, Luffy replies blithely, “Yup! It was interesting! A mystery colour!"

 The human with green hair huffs out a cross between a laugh and a sigh. “It’s not strange,” he grumbles under his breath.

 The rest of the conversation is about mundane things that Luffy doesn’t bother going into detail explaining about. Zoro seems confused. Which, Luffy supposes is a natural reaction. A lot of people were confused when they first met him too. It just took time to get used to his pace, was all.

 

* * *

 

As it turns out, Zoro lives on the other side of East Blue Mountain, the perfect place for Luffy to meet up with his new friend - seeing as that mountain was his and Ace’s home base anyway.

 After spending his morning and part of his afternoon with Ace and Sabo at the latter’s school, Luffy excuses himself from their midst and heads back home, eager to meet with Zoro.

 Luffy knows Zoro will be there when he arrives. He has a feeling he will be.

 

* * *

 

Zoro’s late.

 Luffy knows he’s late, and not _not_ coming, because Luffy can feel his presence in the forest; it’s the same presence Luffy had wrapped up in his youki and shielded from the eyes of other youkai the very same morning. And for the past two hours, the little blip on Luffy's radar had kept making strange turns and taking roundabout paths.

 Luffy’s pretty sure Zoro’s wildly lost. And also that he was an idiot. Either way, he’d eventually end up finding Luffy.

 Until then, Luffy might as well take a nap in the sakura tree he was sitting in. He had all the time in the world, after all.

 

* * *

 

In the following days, Luffy is excited to meet his new friend every evening after school.

 He tells Zoro about Chopper and Robin and Brook and Ace and Sabo and how amazing all of them are. He tells Zoro about his favourite kinds of meat (which is all of them, but especially crocodile meat), the monkeys he trains with at Ruskaina (Luffy’s resolved to bring Zoro there eventually. He’s sure the swordsman would enjoy the challenge), and best of all, Luffy gets to play hide-and-seek with Zoro.

 There are so many things he gets to do that he hadn’t been able to do with humans in such a long time. Zoro can see him, can hear him, can touch him. Luffy can enjoy Zoro’s presence next to his, even when they aren’t doing anything. When they don’t _bother_ doing anything until the sun sets and the stars come out.

 The moonlight on those nights illuminates Zoro’s green hair and his sharp features and the way he looks up at the sky like he could see the world from here, sitting with Luffy side-by-side in the swaying grass.

 Those moments are rare, but they are Luffy’s favourite.

 

* * *

 

Zoro doesn’t talk much about himself. And he never really asks Luffy any questions about himself either, so Luffy assumes.

 Assumes that the scent of mikans, Tabasco sauce, scrap metal, foreign spices and cigarette smoke belong to his friends. Or the fact that the three katana imbued with Zoro’s spiritual power represent his past, his present, and his future as a swordsman. And even that Zoro cannot find him as easily in hide-and-seek when he sneaks around on Zoro’s left side because of the scar over his eye.

 Luffy knows these things instinctively. Zoro is transparent like that.

 And the things that Luffy _does_ look for- those are things that Zoro gives to him on his own.

 Like the promise he made on the white katana. Zoro holds that one closest to his body when they spar. Swings it hardest when he cuts. Luffy can feel the most spiritual power gathered in that sword out of the three; and it’s not only Zoro’s spirit essence that he feels in the heirloom either. It belonged to someone else originally, someone who’s passed away, what with the way Luffy can feel part of their soul still clinging to the blade - making it stronger, sturdier - in a way that the wielder cannot. That sword is without doubt Zoro’s longest and oldest companion. It is a promise made in blood and sweat and tears.

 More than that though, Luffy does not need to ask about Zoro’s ambition in life.

 Not when Luffy mentions Zoro is good with his blades and then soundly beats him in the next moment using nothing but his fists and a little spirit essence to bolster his punches. Zoro’s eyes burn the brightest in those fractions of time; they burn with the kind of light that does not belong to someone who half-asses their art. Those are the eyes of someone aiming to be the absolute best. The number one in the world.

 Luffy notices these things, but Zoro never talks about himself, so Luffy assumes.

 

* * *

 

The day is nice. The air is hot but not humid, clouds frequently provide drifting shade, and the forest is alive with the faint buzzing of youkai getting ready for the Sake Festival later in the evening.

 Perhaps Luffy will bring Zoro with him. Zoro had enjoyed the last few bottles of sake Luffy had brought with him to their meetings on the occasions he stole from Dadan’s hut on Mount Corvo.

 Ah, but the hosts of the festival required an offering for entry to the event. Maybe an animal sacrifice would be good; the host had a tendency to favour the meat on East Blue, so it was either boar or fish or tiger. He remembered seeing a family of boar a while back, and the rivers were plentiful this time of year, so maybe a combination of boar and fish would suffice.

 Luffy decides to wait until Zoro joins him for the day before they go hunting for offerings. It wouldn’t be fair if he did most of the work, after all.

 Zoro meets him under the sakura tree in the very middle of East Blue forest a little before noon, and then they head off for fishing, and sparring and napping in the shade of some trees. Luffy squints up at the little patches of sky blue that peek through the foliage of the maple tree they are napping under. It’s a nice day. But they still haven’t caught any boar.

 With a gusty sigh, Luffy rolls over onto his side and pokes Zoro in the stomach with his foot. They need to get that boar before sunset if they want to make it in time for the sake festival.

 

* * *

 

They’re picking their way through the undergrowth, tracking the hoof-marks of a small boar, when Luffy senses a youkai approaching them with malicious intent. It’s at the very same moment that he catches sight of a boar piglet hiding in the brush some paces away.

 For a moment, Luffy is conflicted. The boar, or the youkai?

 A second later, and Luffy is just beginning to gather his spirit power under his skin when he hears the youkai scream out Zoro’s family name, vengeance on its tongue. Immediately, Luffy dismisses the commotion from his mind. This was Zoro’s fight - _his_ name to clear, not Luffy’s. So he looks away from the direction the youkai is approaching in, and turns his attention back to the boar. Would it taste better roasted, or grilled?

 When Luffy hears the soft _sshhh_ of Wado Ichimonji being drawn, he does not pay it any mind. When the youkai starts screeching at the top of its lungs, Luffy does not pay it any mind. When Zoro’s eyes snap to the side of Luffy’s face and burn a hole into it, Luffy pays it no mind. When the sound of both the foreign youkai and Zoro running full speed towards him grows louder, Luffy still does not pay it any mind. He is too focused on the baby boar, shuffling around under a bush, looking for roots to eat.

 Heck, when the clumsy, revenge-seeking upper mid-rank youkai bumps into Luffy, he _doesn’t really mind._

 What he _does_ mind is when the damn baby boar gets startled by the appearance of the youkai’s ugly bleeding head and scary face and runs away for its dear life.

  _That_ , Luffy is not about to let slide. He would have let it go had it just been a personal vendetta that Zoro had had to settle and the youkai had unwittingly bumped into Luffy. But now that he had let Luffy’s prey escape, things got _personal_. Damned if the youkai vowed vengeance on the Roronoa name. That had been his offering for the night!

 Luffy cuts a quick glance to Zoro after he lays two solid punches on the other youkai to see if the other cares that Luffy had touched his impromptu opponent. Zoro doesn’t seem to mind, what with his slack jaw and bulging eyes, so Luffy lets his rage boil to the surface. He lets his blood run hot and then cold. His spiritual power spikes underneath his skin, glowing white through the blessed mark on his forehead.

 The youkai screeches in pain, its physical form being torn apart and twisted until it disappears in a smattering of rising black smoke. The echoes of its scream rustle the branches of the surrounding trees, disturbing the few nature youkai looking on. They whisper behind their sleeved hands, but Luffy ignores them in favour of Zoro’s wavering spirit energy.

 It becomes turbulent, lashing back and forth for only a few seconds before it settles into a state similar to acceptance. Luffy continues to stare at Zoro until the other chuffs out a breath.

 “So you’re an ayakashi,” he asks without rising intonation. Zoro’s spirit energy settles into a zen state, smooth like the glass surface of a lake.

 “Nah, not really,” Luffy replies, picking up his treasure and placing it back on his head. He wants to laugh at the thought of being called an ayakashi. He was a youkai, sure, but not even close to an ayakashi; more like a mitama (of which people called him an ara-mitama or a nigi-mitama, depending on who you asked).

 Zoro looks perplexed at the thought, but it made sense to Luffy, so the youkai doesn’t bother elaborating on the subject.

 “I see,” Zoro finally hums, keeping pace with Luffy as he starts pushing through the undergrowth in search of the lost baby boar. They still had a few hours before the witching time and the sake festival.

 Which reminded Luffy - he forgot to tell Zoro about the festival at all. Oh well, he’d find out on his own once they got there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some special notes on Luffy in this AU:
> 
> \- Luffy is closer to a deity than an ayakashi (both of which count as youkai); he is a “mitama”, which is basically the spirit of a kami (god) or the soul of a dead person. Mitama come in two forms, which at times are considered separate entities: the Ara-mitama and the Nigi-mitama. The ara-mitama is the rough and violent side of a spirit/kami which appears in times of war or natural disasters. The nigi-mitama is the normal state of the kami, and its functional side.
> 
> \- Luffy's power is "spiritual empathetic synergy". Basically, he is able to feel people's emotions through their spiritual energy. Every human has some level of spiritual energy - though most don't have enough to be able to see youkai - and Luffy is able to pick up on their minimal spiritual energy (and therefore emotions) through skin contact.
> 
> \- Although Luffy can feel what other people feel, that does not always mean he understands what people are feeling. There are complex human emotions that youkai simply do not experience often enough to be really familiar with. For example, shame directed at the self is not something that youkai really experience all that often because they came into existence a certain way and are born (usually) with their life purpose ingrained in their very being.
> 
>  
> 
> Some special notes on Zoro in this AU:
> 
> \- Zoro is wonky for a human - he has very strong spiritual power, but that’s not the weirdest part about him. The strange part about him is that his spiritual power is not concentrated around him or focused within his body. Instead, Zoro’s spiritual power acts more like a gas than a solid aura; it kind of rises off him like steam and dissipates in the area he occupies. In fact, instead of inside of himself, you’d find more of Zoro’s spiritual power concentrated in his swords (they act kind of like vessels to contain the spiritual power that leaks out of Zoro).
> 
> \- Zoro, though his spiritual energy is not concentrated within himself, can naturally refocus his power so they are more evenly spread between his swords and his body. When not using all three swords in a fight, Zoro unconsciously reinforces his body with the remainder of the spiritual power he is not using from his other swords.
> 
> \- Zoro is a born fighter, according to the many youkai that have faced off against him thinking he was simply a weakling that possessed powerful cursed/blessed katana. In truth, Zoro is the one imbuing the swords with his reiki. (Though it is true that one katana is cursed and the other really IS blessed by a piece of Kuina's spirit.)

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaaand the end! I hope this had a Natsume Yuujinchou feel to it. I've been watching the anime recently and just finished the sixth season. (I've never clicked on an OVA so fast in my life.)
> 
> In case it wasn't that readily apparent, Luffy is a youkai (umbrella term meaning "demon/ghost/supernatural being") sort of like Nyanko-sensei, but is closer to being a deity (as shown by the purifying light) than an ayakashi (a lesser spirit/apparition that "appears over a body of water").
> 
> Also, yes, he's been acting as guardian/bodyguard to Zoro since he's met him. I couldn't resist.


End file.
